Second Front
by Grav
Summary: The year is 2010, and Janet Fraiser must pick up the pieces of the conquered Human race, and start a war to win the planet back.
1. Monday's Plan

AN: At the end of 2010, a lot of people made a choice. And when someone makes a choice, that means there must be more than one possible outcome. And if there's more than one possible outcome, that means you get an Alternate Universe. So even though SG-1 was successful, the future as they knew it could have continued after their actions. Yeah, it's better if you run across the top of it really quickly.  
  
A while ago I read a story whose title I cannot recall by an author I do not remember. In fact, all I remember about it is that Daniel asked Janet to stay on Chulak. I read it before I saw 2010, and after I saw 2010, I wrote my own. My apologies if this is too familiar.  
  
Spoilers: 2010  
  
Disclaimer: My mother keeps telling me that I should talk to the people at Stargate and get them to hire me. Of course, I live in the real world (unfortunately), and am fully aware that there is no way in a bazillion years such a thing would ever come to pass. Go ahead and prove me wrong though!  
  
Summary: The year is 2010, and Janet Fraiser has unfinished business.  
  
..................  
  
**Monday's Plan  
**  
It had been a quiet day. Again. There were so many of them now. Doctors, she had long since realized, are all hypocrites. Yes, they claimed to want to find the cures to end all human suffering, but when that end came, she found herself wishing for an intensely viral tropical plague or two. Even if she got one, she thought bitterly, the Aschen would probably have a cure waiting for her. She never thought the day would come when she would curse her decision to go into medicine and mean it.  
  
Tomorrow they would try to change the past. Take the planet without waging a war, just as the Aschen had done in the first place. The plan was orchestrated by an man the Aschen had never really trusted, and it was a good one. They all had small parts to play, each seemingly innocuous but when combined, Janet knew that it stood a fair chance of succeeding. She had the smallest part of all. Tomorrow, she would step through the Gate, go to Chulak, send Teal'c back, and then wait and pray for the end of the world as she knew it.  
  
A knock on the door shattered her contemplative state. This was really a bad night for company, and she was tempted to ignore it, but when the knock came again, it was in a familiar pattern, and she knew she would have to open the door because he would not go away until she did.  
  
Of all the people she expected to find standing on her stoep tonight, Daniel Jackson was one of the last. Daniel had suffered almost as much as she had over the last few years. His trowel and paint brush had been replaced by more efficient, less hands-on tools, and a computer program now did most of his translations and comparison for him. Still, Daniel could go into the field; all Janet had was an echoy office in Washington. It had been a long time since Janet had seen his eyes gleam in the anticipation of a mission to come. It scared her a little to see that they were gleaming now.  
  
"Come in," she said to him, and he stepped across her threshold. He was carrying a small suit case.  
  
"We need to talk," he said as she led him to her sitting room.  
  
"We've needed to talk for a while," she reminded him.  
  
"Yes, I know," he said, and sat in the seat she pointed him at. "I came to apologize for not standing by you when they stripped away your livelihood one piece at a time. I didn't understand until it happened to me. I'm sorry I was so self involved."  
  
"It's done, Daniel. And if we're lucky, after tomorrow it won't matter anymore."  
  
"Tomorrow is the other reason I came." His voice was deadly quiet. She felt a chill run down her spine. "I want you to stay on Chulak."  
  
"But I can come back with Teal'c," she protested, standing up. "It'll give you another gun at the Gate."  
  
"No."  
  
"Are you trying to protect me?" Now she was enraged. "Are you trying to keep me safe?"  
  
"No! No, I swear that's not it," he said quickly, coming to stand in front of her. "I need you to stay on Chulak in case we fail."  
  
"Daniel - "  
  
"Listen to me, Janet." He put his hands on her shoulders. She looked up at him and got lost in his eyes. "There is a very real possibility that the automated defense systems will take us out before we get the message through. If that happens, you will be the only person left who knows the truth."  
  
"What do you need me to do?" God, she'd missed this rush.  
  
"Take that case with you." Daniel pointed to his suitcase. "It has addresses in it. Encoded. For the Tolan, a few Asgard protected planets, a few places where a group of humans could hide. There's also a communication sphere you can use to contact Jacob, if he's still out there. Rya'c has a ship on Chulak. He'll take you where ever you need to go."  
  
"Daniel, this is crazy."  
  
"I know." His hands moved from her shoulders to her elbows, and she reacted to his touch unconsciously, moving closer. "You can do this, Janet, I know you can."  
  
"I'm just a doctor. And obso – "  
  
"You were the CMO of an USAF base and you inspired fear in hard bitten officers. You can unite Earth against the Aschen. You've seen the statistics. You can explain the medical aspects. You can do this."  
  
"You'll be dead. You'll all be dead." She started to fall apart in his arms. He tightened his grip.  
  
"Janet!" Daniel spoke a bit more forcefully than he intended, but it had the desired effect. Janet straightened, and Daniel softened his voice. "I'm asking a lot, Janet. I'm asking you to organize a war by yourself. I'm asking you to convince our planet to fight against what they think is the best thing to ever happen to them. You've been through a lot, and I wasn't there for you. And if you do this, it will be because you are alone."  
  
"I'll do it."  
  
He smiled, that wistful smile she used to see so often, and kissed her on the forehead. She was so overwhelmed by everything that he was halfway to her door before she noticed he was leaving, and had one shoe on before she realized she didn't want him to.  
  
"Stay with me." She didn't want to be alone anymore. There had been too many quiet days and empty nights.  
  
Daniel took off his shoe slowly, and without breaking eye contact.  
  
"Janet?"  
  
"Tomorrow this either stops existing, or I start a war because you're all dead and there's no one else left to do it. Please, stay with me tonight."  
  
Daniel crossed the room to where she stood, and took her in his arms again. She'd missed him more than she thought. She took his face between her hands, and pulled him down to kiss her properly. His hands had been guarded, gentlemanly. Hers were completely unrestrained, and they were his undoing. Once he had committed to the kiss, her hands left his face and made their way down his chest, pulling at his shirt. When they parted to breathe, Janet looked up at him, heart and soul in her eyes. He bent to kiss her again, and she pulled him towards her bedroom.  
  
..................  
  
It had been, he reflected sometime later, a most unexpected evening. When he had knocked on her door, he had expected to ask her, get his answer and leave. Statistically, two out of three wasn't bad. He looked down at the woman in his arms, and absently brushed her hair behind her ear. She moved against him in her sleep, and he was surprised to find feelings he thought he had lost the capacity to feel stir in him again. Unexpected, yes, but not unwelcome.  
  
"Is there anyone on Earth I should enlist?" she murmured. Not asleep then.  
  
"It's in the package as well," he replied without missing a beat. "Griff is in Amarillo, and he should know where to find some of the old guard. At least his own team to begin with. There's a few other people you could contact too. Oh, and Walter Davis is still at the SGC. He's expecting us on Thursday. You'll be able to access the armoury through him."  
  
"That doesn't give me much time on Chulak," Janet pointed out. Her hands began to move again. "I hope Jacob's in the neighbourhood and at home when I call."  
  
"A lot of this will be luck. At the beginning anyway," Daniel admitted. "Rya'c's a good soldier, solid as his father, and his ship is stealth capable. You'll know by tomorrow night what needs to be done."  
  
"Daniel?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I don't think I can do this."  
  
He kissed her again, and ten years of misery disappeared. She was not obsolete. Her friends were not alienated from one another. Earth had a future, and the SGC was going to protect it.  
  
"You can. You can because it must be done."  
  
It was true. And she didn't want to talk any more.  
  
..................  
  
AN: You know, I'm not even a Daniel/Janet 'shipper. Seriously. Still, my heart did do a bit of a flip at the look that passed between them just before Janet stepped through the Gate, although that might have been because of Daniel's suit. I'm a lost cause. You may as well leave me behind. 


	2. Tuesday's Wait

AN: And here I am again! Multi-chaptered fic and no major characters. I must enjoy suffering.  
  
..................  
  
**Tuesday's Wait  
**  
1500, Stargate Departure Area  
  
She had never felt this much trepidation before stepping through the Stargate. She rarely went through it, but as she stood in the line of travelers bound for Chulak, it was all she could do not to hyperventilate on the spot. Still, she was an officer of the USAF, and she was determined to walk, unflinching, through that Gate.  
  
Her travel papers were all in order. According to them, she was going to Chulak to visit her godson, which was not entirely a lie. The Aschen who had processed her through customs had said something mildly insulting in his native tongue to a colleague when he read the part of her travel application that said 'Profession: Doctor', but Janet took the high road and ignored him. She was, after all, about to stick it to his entire race.  
  
Her suitcase was a work of art. Her contact addresses were all in an unassuming notebook, and should any ambitious customs official flip through it, he or she would find, among other things, a very nice recipe for Chicken Tika. The Gate addresses were marked out by coloured dots on the pages of 'A Beginners Guide to Earth Astronomy'. It was easy to forget sometimes, that Daniel Jackson had a great deal of experience when it came to liberating planets. Janet carried no weapon, that would have been impossible, but her communication sphere was ingeniously concealed as one of a pair of Chinese medicine balls. He'd even figured out a way to make it chime in the right key when shaken. Concealed in the false bottom of the case was a disk containing Janet's medical files, everything Sam could come up with about the Jupiter project and an Aschen to English translating program.  
  
She wanted more than anything to look back over her shoulder, to see Colonel O'Neill, and Daniel, and maybe Sam before she stepped through and away, but she knew she couldn't. Jack had been marked as soon as he entered the complex, and it was vital that there not be a connection between them. The PA system announced her imminent departure, and the line began to move. She reached the base of the stair case, and risked one look. From the balcony, Daniel looked down at her, his complete confidence and an unspoken 'Good luck' in his eyes. He raised his hand, and she responded automatically.  
  
Trying not to think about what was or what might be, Janet set her shoulders, walked resolutely up the stairs and, without flinching, stepped through.  
  
..................  
  
1800, Chulak  
  
The sunset was the most beautiful she had ever seen. It was not her sun, nor was it her sky, nor her horizon, but as the heavens of this alien world lit up with a symphony of oranges, reds, pinks and purples, she thought the beauty of it might break her heart. But her heart could not break, because it was already broken.  
  
She was still here, sitting on a secluded ridge on a planet far away from her own, waiting to hear from a Tok'ra who might or might not be alive, gazing out at this gorgeous vista. It could at least be raining.  
  
She wanted to die. But she couldn't, because he had asked her to live. Moreover, in the moment the Stargate had reassembled her molecules on the Chulak side, she had noticed an addition, and now she was even more bound to this life than she had been before. But right now, she was very much alone.  
  
The communication sphere began to hum, and suddenly the face of Jacob Carter appeared in front of her. It was evident from his expression that he was in shock to be hearing from her, so Janet was unsurprised when it was Selmak who initiated the conversation.  
  
"Dr. Fraiser," she said in the customary Tok'ra tone. "Why are you using a communication sphere?"  
  
As quickly as she could, Janet outlined the activities of the last few days, beginning with her discovery of Sam's condition, and ending with the distressing fact that this reality still existed. Neither Jacob nor Selmak interrupted her story, but she was reasonably certain that the silence was a direct result of the latter's influence on the former. She was about ready to beg for help when Jacob finally cut her off.  
  
"You'll have to come and get us," he said simply. "We don't have a ship handy."  
  
"Rya'c will bring me," Janet said. "He'll take us to Earth. We can't risk using the Gate. I'm probably at least wanted for questioning, and the symbiote detectors tend to. . .overreact."  
  
"Indeed." The extreme treatment of the Tok'ra who visited Earth was another straw on the camel's back of problems ignored, and the unspoken reason why the Tok'ra had pulled out of their alliance with Earth after the war. "I am sending you the coordinates of our planet. We're actually not far from Chulak. If you leave now, you should be here in a couple of hours."  
  
"Thank you, Jacob," Janet said, meaning it completely.  
  
"They took my little girl from me," Jacob said, his eyes hard. Selmak took over. "The Tok'ra have long hoped that the Taur'i would someday see the trap into which they walked so willingly. We will help them out of it. Come quickly, Dr. Fraiser. The day is flying past."  
  
..................  
  
2100, Tok'ra Base  
  
Janet had never flown in space before, nor had she ever been on three planets in one day. According to her wristwatch, it was still Tuesday on Earth, though just barely. She had spent the trip from Chulak decoding the various chicken recipes into addresses. Daniel's cipher was a little obscure, but it was easy enough once she got the hang of it.  
  
When they arrived at the Tok'ra planet, Rya'c Ringed her down to the surface, and she saw Jacob waiting for her. For all she was a competent doctor, and a decorated officer, the moment she saw her best friend's father, her grief finally hit her, and she broke down for the first time since she had realized what must have happened on Earth. Jacob said nothing until she had cried herself out, and then he passed her the Tok'ra version of Kleenex, and began to speak.  
  
"One of the first things Selmak warned me about, just before we were blended, was that I would never get older. I would stay the same for a very long time, and then I would die." Janet wasn't sure what his point was. "Hidden in that warning, she was telling me that I would outlive my children. And my children's children. And possibly even the generation after that.  
  
"Selmak has been preparing me for the death of my daughter since the day she slithered down my throat. It hasn't done much good." Jacob paused, and then switched gears entirely. "There are a hundred Tok'ra here, all of whom have experience in subversive tactics from our war with the Goa'uld. You and I will go to Earth with six others, and then Rya'c will return here to ferry the rest. They, and the ones who come with us, will go into hiding until we contact them."  
  
Janet, though initially thrown by his quick switch to business, lost no time in cataloging what Jacob was telling her. A hundred Tok'ra was an impressive number. They might have a viable shot at this. She realized suddenly that Jacob was staring at her, and she returned his gaze, not sure what he wanted.  
  
"Selmak says you're – "  
  
"I know," she cut him off. She couldn't handle it now. "I felt it coming through the Gate. How long until your people are ready to leave?"  
  
"We're ready now." It was a deflection, and he knew it, but he let her get away with it. "Tell Rya'c we can be Ringed up in two minutes. We'll be on Earth by 0400, and then we can move to our next stop."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"Janet," he said as gently as possible. "This has to come from you, you know that, right? Humans must save themselves. It will be a long time before they'll trust aliens again, if ever. I'll advise, I'll correct, I'll get coffee, but you are going to be at the front of this."  
  
"I am starting to realize that." She said it calmly, but she felt the weight of it begin to fall on her, and it was terrifying.  
  
"Jacob is excitable," Selmak said. "We will be with you all the way. Human loyalty is strong. When you find the former members of the SGC, they will rally behind you."  
  
"Thank you, Selmak." Janet never thought she'd see the day when a Tok'ra would make her feel better. "I'll signal Rya'c, and then we'd better get moving."  
  
..................  
  
AN: You know how last time Selmak was really funny? Yeah, it kind of didn't work this time around. Sorry! I'll try again later. What do you think so far? R&R SVP! 


	3. Wednesday's Muster

AN: How I came to choose Amarillo Texas: I opened my atlas, and picked the closest Texan city to Colorado. For those of you playing along home, it's about 605 km. Why Texas, you ask? Got me.  
  
..................  
  
**Wednesday's Muster**  
  
0600, Amarillo Texas  
  
Janet Fraiser never suspected that Major Griff would own a set of fine china. Yet, there was the delicate saucer and cup full of tea perched on her knee. Apparently, it had been his mother's, and he was supposed to have been married which would have made the dishes less out of place. Janet's tea was getting cold, but she hadn't noticed. All of her attention was fixed on the television set, which Griff had set to CNN, or what passed for CNN under the Aschen anyway.  
  
"It is still unknown," the announcer was saying as he concluded his summary of SG-1's attack on the Gate platform, "what means Jack O'Neill used to blackmail the respected Drs. Carter and Jackson and the Jaffa Teal'c to cooperate with him, but it must have been effective, because they all ignored chances to save themselves.  
  
"Authorities are looking for Dr. Janet Fraiser," and here there was a picture. "Who also collaborated in this act of terrorism. Her last known location was Chulak."  
  
As the announcer switched topics, Janet finally took a sip of her now stone cold tea. Griff had been making breakfast when Janet and Jacob had knocked on his door, and now Janet understood that his shock in seeing her was not just because it was six o'clock in the morning. Terrorist Collaborator indeed!  
  
"That's been playing more or less continuously since yesterday," Griff said. "I didn't know what to think. I mean, the Colonel has always been crazy, but. . .in a good way."  
  
"No kidding," said Janet. "Blackmailing? Whoever is writing their cover stories needs a few lessons in plausibility."  
  
"Still, it's effective." Jacob was quite shaken by the images of Sam's attempt to pass through the Gate. "Start working on a speech, Janet. If we ever get a chance to broadcast anything, we're going to pounce on it."  
  
"You're going to need some sort of disguise, doctor," Griff said thoughtfully. "You've been all over the news, and even though they're expecting to find you on Chulak. . ."  
  
"That is indeed most prudent," said Selmak. "But I believe our priorities should be finding allies and procuring weapons."  
  
"Daniel said you would be able to get in touch with your team." Janet directed at Griff, who nodded. "Will they be with us?"  
  
"Oh yes," Griff said with conviction. "Abernathy phoned a two AM after he'd seen the news for the first time, completely livid. The others have all checked in too, but I didn't have anything to tell them."  
  
"You do now," said Janet. "Have them meet us in the commissary of the SGC tomorrow at noon. Tell them to come in Foothold."  
  
"Why the SGC?"  
  
"The armoury's still full."  
  
"I think we're going to need an astrophysicist," Jacob said, a catch in his voice. "Selmak's never been one, and I want an outside source to look over the Jupiter plan and tell us how much sense it really makes. I don't think Earth was meant to be in a binary system."  
  
"There's a name here," said Janet, flipping though the 'recipe' book. "Rodney McKay. He's non-military, but he was one of our emergency contacts at the SGC. We never had to bring him in. He lives in Colorado Springs."  
  
"At least he's on the way," Griff said. "I'll get my team together, and we'll be there."  
  
"Before we go, there is one last task to attend to." Janet looked up when Selmak spoke to see Jacob holding a pair of scissors. "Your hair is probably the best place to begin, Doctor Fraiser."  
  
Janet sighed and nodded. She placed her still full tea cup on a coaster, and got up to follow Selmak towards the bathroom.  
  
"Do not be concerned, Doctor Fraiser," Selmak reassured her. "I have had centuries of practice altering hair for the purposes of disguise. My current host needs no such maintenance, obviously, but I am still female. I promise I will remain within the realm of good taste."  
  
The expression of Major Griff's face was quite priceless.  
  
..................  
  
1400, Colorado Springs  
  
Dr. Rodney McKay was, perhaps, the most annoying human being Janet had ever met. He was brilliant, and he had been willing to listen to her before calling the authorities, but he had all the social graces of an oyster. Still, at the same time, Janet half-wished they'd called him into the SGC a couple of times; it would have been fun to watch Sam bring him down a peg. Or six.  
  
As McKay sat at his kitchen table pouring over the data and taking notes while Jacob stood by ready to take any action necessary, Janet sat on the chesterfield trying not to let her inactivity herald another breakdown. As long as she was busy, she could keep it out of her mind. On the ship to Earth, Jacob had offered her a drink of water. She had known it was drugged, even before she had noticed that it was purple, but she hadn't protested. Part of her was furious at his treatment of her, but another part understood. She wasn't made of spun sugar, but she was still finding her footing, and Jacob had decided to hold her up until she did. She wondered if Daniel had known that would happen.  
  
"This is really ridiculous." McKay's sudden outburst drove all thoughts of Daniel from her head, and for a moment she was irrationally angry with the scientist. "From what I understand, they plan to ignite to ignite Jupiter and force it to begin fusion. They aren't changing its mass, so its gravitational effect on Earth and orbit will remain static, but it's just too small."  
  
"Too small for what?" asked Janet.  
  
"To be a star." McKay spoke as though to a child. "Astronomers have been theorizing for years about Jupiter's potential to be a star. Some even go so far as to say that it was a failed star, and the reason that it failed, was that it was too small. End of story. It's not like it can go on a diet and bulk up. When it's ignited, it will burn through its hydrogen in a very short period of time and then go Nova. And that will definitely affect Earth."  
  
"How short a period?" Jacob asked.  
  
"I'd need more time to get an exact number. Two, three thousand years maybe." Off of Janet's look he continued. "That's a very short time, astronomically speaking."  
  
"We need something more immediately destructive," Selmak said. McKay, to his credit, did only the slightest of double takes.  
  
"What about radiation? Green house effect? Ice caps?" Janet thought she was firing in the dark, but McKay perked up a little.  
  
"UV radiation would increase. More skin problems."  
  
"The Aschen can deal with that."  
  
"Well, we're effectively doubling the solar emissions directed at Earth. We've stopped putting out greenhouse gases, but the old ones are still up there. Less heat energy would escape Earth, and the temperature would increase. The ice caps would melt and flood the coastal areas, and the rest of the Earth would get so hot it would be unlivable."  
  
"How unlivable?" Jacob asked.  
  
"Been to Venus lately?"  
  
"How long?" Janet pressed to the heart of the matter.  
  
"We'd notice the effects almost immediately," McKay said after a few moment's thought. "The cold habitat species would be gone within fifty years, and we'd lose the coast around the same time. Another fifty years and even the warm habitat species, including humans, would begin to die out. The air would be getting worse and the water would be evapourating and not condensing. Fifty years after that, there'd be nothing left but rising temperatures."  
  
Janet and Jacob shared a look, and Jacob nodded.  
  
"Can you make up a presentation? One that could be broadcast and understood by the general populace?" Jacob asked.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"We'll add your reproductive statistics to the presentation as well," Jacob said, looking at Janet. "That way, if we broadcast, we'll kill two birds with one stone. Three if you get that speech written."  
  
"What exactly are you people planning?" McKay asked. "I mean, you told me way too much to let me live if I don't join you, and I'm completely in, so tell me."  
  
"We're still planning," Janet admitted, wincing slightly. "But right now, we're gathering up our people, organizing our information and procuring our supplies for what will likely be a very long guerilla war."  
  
McKay swallowed.  
  
"Doctor Fraiser," said Selmak. "You should remain here with Doctor McKay and corroborate your information. We must go and contact our people. We will stay here tonight."  
  
Selmak held out Jacob's hand for the communication sphere, and put it in his pocket when Jacob handed it over to them. With a nod, they went out the door. Janet turned back to the table where McKay was waiting.  
  
"He has people?"  
  
"Tok'ra. He's Jacob Carter." Janet flinched at McKay's reaction to the surname. "Sam Carter's father."  
  
"I met her once. At NORAD. She was giving a presentation about Deep Space Telemetry." Janet couldn't help but smile a bit at that. It really was a ridiculous cover story. McKay continued "She was a genius, but I can see how she'd be taken in by this. It's all sugar coated and almost believable. If I'd been told every day for the last few years that it would work, I'd be inclined to believe myself."  
  
Janet said nothing, but she did begin to revise her opinion of Doctor Rodney McKay ever so slightly.  
  
"Come on, doctor," he said. "We've got some doubts to plant."  
  
..................  
  
AN: I'll admit straight out, I made a lot of the Jupiter stuff up (except the part about it being a failed star. It really is just below critical mass). But really, two stars? That's got to be a recipe for disaster. 


	4. Thursday's Infiltration

AN: I really like Davis. Both of them in general, but the Sergeant in particular. And he was so much fun in 2010, I just had to really use him in this. Plus, I had a few great conversation ideas. . .  
  
..................  
  
**Thursday's Infiltration**  
  
1200, Cheyenne Mountain Base  
  
Walter Davis was having a bad week. The curators had been ignoring his corrections of their displays, every time he heard a step behind him he thought it was the Aschen coming to drag him away as a terrorist collaborator, and now someone had misplaced the replica of Dr. Jackson's medical field kit. Again. After searching in vain all morning, Davis finally remembered that the Commissary was now a store room, and went to look there.  
  
The door to the Commissary – no, storage room six – was ajar, and Davis couldn't quite help rolling his eyes. When he had first come to Cheyenne Mountain Base what felt like a lifetime ago, the whole complex had been sealed up as 'Titus Andronicus', to steal a phrase from his mother. Sometimes, the lax security made him nervous, but then he remembered the they no longer had to worry about planetary security. Of course, today, planetary security made Davis nervous anyway, because of those damn zats, and he wondered what in the world had possessed Jack O'Neill. Davis pushed the door the rest of the open, stepped into the ill-lit room---  
  
--- And immediately felt the pressure of a service pistol against his temple.  
  
"Davis?" The voice was familiar, something to do with pointed objects. He recognized the short woman who stepped out from behind the shelving unit immediately. "Walter, it's Janet Fraiser. We need to talk."  
  
God, he hated Thursdays.  
  
..................  
  
All things considered, Davis took it very well. He had gaped and spluttered for a while, but that had been expected. It made him feel a great deal better to know that O'Neill's actions had been for the good of Earth, and that if the Aschen came to take him away, he would go knowing he had done the right thing.  
  
At the conclusion of Janet's explanation, Major Griff and the rest of his reunited team came back carrying several cases.  
  
"How did it go, Major?" Janet asked.  
  
"Nothing simpler," Griff said shortly, using his hands to direct his 2IC as to where to put their acquisitions. "We stuck to the unused corridors and no one saw us. Security's really slipped around here."  
  
"All right then," Janet spoke with a crisp authority. One could almost believe that she knew what she was doing. "We have the basis of our arsenal. Do we plan a strike or try and find a computer core we can use to program the broadcast?"  
  
"I think we should deal with the PR as soon as possible," said Selmak.  
  
"Yes, but we're going to have to attack wherever we go," pointed out Griff.  
  
"N-not necessarily," Davis spoke up. All heads snapped to him. "There's a core here. It's guarded, but you could get to it."  
  
"That still leaves us without a programmer," Janet said. "We'll need to override the Aschen database."  
  
"I can do it," Davis said confidently.  
  
"What?" Janet was obviously caught off guard. Even the impassive Griff raised his eyebrows.  
  
"I have a PhD in computer programming. If you can get me in, I can do it."  
  
"You encoded chevrons!" Abernathy burst out.  
  
"Do you have any idea what's involved in that? It's not like pushing buttons on a DHD," Davis said. "Besides, I looked over Major Carter's shoulder through a fair few disasters. I know a few tricks."  
  
"Janet, Rodney, are you two ready?" Jacob asked.  
  
"The visuals are all here," said McKay, holding up a disk. "The actual talking will have to be recorded while we broadcast. Janet has a copy of what to read."  
  
"And I've got the back-up of both," Griff said. "My team will go in first and you'll follow when the core is secure."  
  
"And then you'll leave?"  
  
"Doctor – "  
  
"Eight people is too many," Janet went on unequivocally. "Jacob can watch our backs. And if something goes wrong, you can release the back-up when you get the chance."  
  
"Yes ma'am!" Griff nodded, and he and his team filed out.  
  
"See," said Jacob. "It gets easier every time you do it."  
  
"Let's get this over with," Janet said, passing a zat to Davis and a pistol to McKay.  
  
The attack went swiftly and without a hitch. SG-3 might have been out of practice, but they were far from rusty. Within moments, the Aschen had been taken out. Davis got to the alarm and deactivated it and the cameras before they had a chance to record anything. That done, he moved to the main control, with McKay sitting beside him pitching in where he could.  
  
"Major, head for the surface," Janet said. "I'm assuming this will be all over the news either way, but of what the media says. We will meet you tomorrow outside the Embassy in Washington at 1100. Questions?"  
  
"No ma'am, and good luck."  
  
"Thank you, Major. Now get moving."  
  
As Major Griff and the rest of SG-3 left, Jacob took up watch at the door and Janet went to McKay and Davis at the console.  
  
"I'm setting up a program that will relay the broadcast over every frequency, and then put it on a loop," Davis reported.  
  
"Won't they just shut you down?" Janet asked.  
  
"Oh, they'll try. They'll have to break the pass phrase to shut it off," Davis said, his fingers flying over the controls. "They'll get it, of course, but it should play through a couple of times before they shut us down."  
  
"What's the phrase?" McKay asked.  
  
"'Remember the Alamo!'. It's case specific and they have to include the exclamation point."  
  
"Nice. Very optimistic."  
  
"Thursdays bring out the worst in me," Davis admitted. "But it makes me think of the General too."  
  
"Hey, I'm just grateful you didn't pick Thermopylae," Jacob said over his shoulder from the door way.  
  
"I don't spell well under pressure."  
  
Janet laughed. Davis finished typing, and began prepping the recorded.  
  
"Doctor Fraiser, if you would come over here," Janet stepped to the place Davis indicated. "You're live in five, four, three, two. . ."  
  
Janet realized in a panic that while the scientific aspects of what she was about to say were scripted out, she had no idea how she was going to make it inspiring and, well, make it human.  
  
"One!" And she knew.  
  
"Four people died yesterday," she began with out any preamble. "They were good friends of mine, and they died trying to save us from an enemy we don't even see. The Goa'uld were an enemy we could see. They came in ships and fired weapons and gloated at their ability to wipe us from the face of this planet.  
  
"But we were saved." Jacob let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. She was going to do it. "We were saved by a race who have made us strangers in our own home. By a race who have rendered nine tenths of our population infertile. By a race who plan to turn Jupiter into a star and fry us off the very planet we fought so hard to protect."  
  
The screen split. As Janet continued speaking on the left, the right side of the screen filled with the charts and pictures she and McKay had created to explain the science. The information was perfectly distilled, and Janet never faltered as she read off each damning detail.  
  
"I took an oath once," Janet said as the screen went back to normal. "I swore to do no harm. And I am going to break that promise. Because I have also sworn to protect my country. Because I was part of an organization bound to protecting this world. Because on Monday, when a friend asked me to play my part in this, I told him yes.  
  
"Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter, Teal'c and Daniel Jackson have already died for us." Janet's voice was charged with emotion, and her eyes were bright with unshed tears and something else Jacob recognized as pure determination. "I am Janet Fraiser, and I refuse to let their sacrifices go to waste. I will fight for this planet. I will fight the Aschen."  
  
In awe, Davis hit the final few keys that sent the broadcast into loop and turned off the recorder. Janet didn't move. McKay wasn't entirely sure she was breathing.  
  
"Very well done, Doctor Fraiser," said Selmak, calm as always. "And now we must make our retreat. They will soon trace us here."  
  
With Jacob in the lead, McKay assisting Janet and Davis covering the rear, the rebels made their way to the vents, to the surface, and to the fight.  
  
..................  
  
AN: Excuse me, I think I have something in my eye. . . 


	5. Friday's Rebel

AN: This was a very odd story to write, because I took a bunch of people who almost never get screen time together and made them a team. And I tried to make Janet into something she isn't. It was also very sad, sometimes, and yet, still a rush when I got to this chapter.  
  
..................  
  
**Friday's Rebel**  
  
1000, Washington DC  
  
"You're quite the celebrity, my dear doctor," McKay said, getting into the van Jacob had 'procured' and distributing coffee to the occupants of the back seat. "The newscasts, of course, all paint you as a paranoid schizophrenic, pushed over the edge by your inability to adapt to a world that you see no longer needing you, but word on the street is a bit more. . .speculative."  
  
"That's oddly comforting," Janet said, taking a sip. "I suppose it's better to be schizophrenic than a blackmailer."  
  
"Or poor Davis here," McKay looked over his shoulder with an unrepentant grin on his face. "Whose weak personality was overcome by the legendary charisma of Colonel O'Neill, and who then committed suicide when he realized the effects of his actions."  
  
"Suicide!" demanded an irate Davis, while Janet giggled in spite of herself.  
  
"Oh yes. You were quite creative. You – "  
  
"I don't want to know."  
  
"How many times did the broadcast play?" asked Jacob who, by all appearances, seemed to be driving aimlessly through Washington morning traffic.  
  
"Three times," McKay reported. "According to the computer geeks in front of me in line at the coffee shop, the design was ingenious. A virus would have been detected immediately. Making the broadcast look like an innocuous file made it harder to pin down."  
  
"Weak personality indeed."  
  
"So, um, what exactly are we planning on doing today?" McKay asked.  
  
"We are going to take a tour of the Embassy," Janet said. "You and Davis are going to sneak off and sit yourselves down in front of the first computer you find. Then, you'll download everything you can find out about public reaction to yesterday's broadcast. Davis will release a virus into the system, and you'll get the hell out."  
  
"What does the virus do? And won't it be detected?"  
  
"We want to be detected," Jacob reminded him.  
  
"Oh. Right."  
  
"It will disable the automated defense systems, or, two of them anyway," Davis said. "That will trigger an alarm, which will be their signal to go for it."  
  
"Go for what?"  
  
"Anything we can," Jacob said. "Janet and I both have several small explosive devices. We'll plant them wherever we can and detonate them by remote after the system goes down."  
  
"Meanwhile, SG-3 will be doing the same thing from the other end of the building." Janet finished.  
  
"No offence, but that doesn't sound like it's going to be very effective," McKay said.  
  
"This isn't for the Aschen. This is for other humans," Janet said. "We need to show our people that we're not paranoid or suicidal. We need to get in and blow stuff up, but we also need to survive to do it again tomorrow. And the day after that. And every day until it is done."  
  
"I see," McKay was quite overcome by Janet's vehemence.  
  
"Also, there are Tok'ra cells all across the planet, and they all have targets," Jacob said. "At 1100, they'll all go active, and we'll attack in concert."  
  
"You people scare me, you know," McKay said. "But I'm strangely reassured at the same time. Earth is in good hands."  
  
..................  
  
1100, Washington DC  
  
Amy Peredhil had almost called in to work sick this morning. She had been up all night with her television trying to decide if she believed the Aschen. She had Aschen friends. They sent her birthday cards, and always remembered to give her Chanukah off.  
  
She had been trying for two years to conceive a child.  
  
But she came to work anyway, because that was the kind of woman she was. If her tours of the Aschen Embassy were a little less enthusiastic than normal, no one commented on it. Everyone, it seemed, was having an odd day.  
  
As she was showing her latest troop through the final hallway, she dropped to the rear, smiling at each person she passed as they made their way into the Gift Shop. She saw a woman with short hair and sunglasses set her cellular phone down behind a potted plant and continue walking next to the man beside her. Amy quietly stopped them, and told them the woman that she had forgotten her phone. The woman tensed, but then relaxed and thanked Amy profusely. The young tour guide thought there was something familiar about the voice, but couldn't quite place it.  
  
A commotion at the front of the group drew Amy's attention away momentarily, and when she looked back, the couple was gone. She presumed they'd gone into the shop. As she was turning away, Amy saw a metallic glint from the flower pot. She squinted. It was a cell phone.  
  
_My name is Janet Fraiser and I will fight for this planet._  
  
Amy Peredhil took an early lunch.  
  
..................  
  
The problem with the computer was that to see the monitor, one had to be facing the wall. Davis began the download, McKay standing next to him, facing the door. As he passed the encoder-cum-programmer disks with one hand, his other held the service pistol rock steady and pointed at the door. For one strangely out of place moment, McKay flashed back to his stint as captain of the UC Berkley modern pentathlon team. All those hours spent on the shooting range were coming in terribly useful right about now. As the information downloaded in one window, Davis began to enter the virus program into another.  
  
As the former sergeant pocketed the final back-up disk and activated the virus, several things happened at once. The ear splitting alarm began to sound, gun-fire could be heard in the distance, and four armed Aschen guards entered the room.  
  
"On your feet!" barked one of them, showing none of the customary Aschen reserve. Davis complied.  
  
"_If you're caught, play along_," Janet's voice echoed in McKay's head. "_They won't be expecting explosions. Use that to your advantage_."  
  
McKay looked at Davis who nodded almost imperceptibly. When the time came, they would act. For now, they surrendered their weapons to their captors, and allowed themselves to be surrounded. One of the Aschen sat down at the computer terminal and, with a few key-strokes, disabled the alarm. McKay didn't speak much Aschen, but he recognized the inflection of swear words in any language. Apparently, Davis' virus was not only still disabling the automated defense systems, they were also having trouble tracking it down.  
  
"What have you done?" demanded one of the Aschen, waving a gun in Davis' face.  
  
Davis said nothing. The Aschen was about to backhand him when the room was rocked by a series of explosions. The two humans sprang immediately into action. McKay couldn't see Davis, but he wrestled his gun away from the Aschen who had taken it and shot him point blank. The astrophysicist turned back and engaged the second Aschen. He heard the distinctive sound of a zat being fired, but couldn't see who had fired it. As McKay dispatched his opponent, he heard gunfire. Then, there was a burning pain in his right arm. As he doubled over, be missed seeing Sergeant Walter Davis fire his zat'nikatel three times at the last remaining Aschen, and collapse in a pool of blood.  
  
..................  
  
Jacob Carter had been many things. Husband, father, general, ambassador, and none of it had prepared him for what he was currently neck deep in. Selmak had been many, many things. Farmer, engineer, interior decorator, interstellar intelligence operative, and all of it combined to make her perfectly suited to the situation. Between her experience and Jacob's humanity, she knew that they could cope with anything this guerilla war threw at them.  
  
As soon as the tour guide had turned away, Jacob had pulled Janet into the Gift Shop. They had been milling around for about five minutes when the alarm went off and a mechanized voice came on the PA system warning of terrorist attacks. In the ensuing confusion, they were able to duck back into the hallway, where they were close enough to begin the remote detonation of their explosives. Janet could clearly hear the gunfire as Griff's team began their attack, but she forced herself to concentrate on her own tasks.  
  
According to the schematics they had obtained, there were three separately controlled defense zones. The most deadly protected the ambassador's office, but the other two, the ones surrounding the shops and offices of the lesser dignitaries were the targets. However, since the layout of the building was circular and the Ambassador's office was in the centre, its shields prevented a signal being sent across it. This meant that signals had to be sent from all four cardinal points.  
  
Griff's team was in charge of North and East, the two wings to which the tour did not go. After all of their devices had been set off at North, Griff sent his team East while he headed in the other direction. The consummate military professional, Griff was uncomfortable putting Jacob and Janet together. It was too close to all eggs in one basket, and Janet was not a field officer. Worse, she was a doctor, and Griff wanted to be sure that she always had someone around her who would not hesitate to pull the trigger.  
  
Fully aware that he was almost defying a direct order, Major Griff followed the curving hallway, sticking to the wall and ready for anything.  
  
..................  
  
Once, when he was a small boy, Walter Davis had stolen his older brother's bicycle, determined to learn to ride it. He had, of course, gone all of two metres before he'd gotten his feet spectacularly tangled in the pedals and had taken the whole bike with him when he fell. Lying there, with the crushing weight of the too-big bicycle on his chest, he had wondered if this was what dying felt like.  
  
He knew now that it wasn't. Because he was dying, and it wasn't heavy. Heck, it didn't even hurt. Much. Well, just when he breathed, and then it was agony, but something told him he wasn't going to have to worry about it for much longer.  
  
Across the room, Rodney McKay got to his knees and, cradling his injured arm, crawled across the floor to Davis. He gasped at the hole in the sergeant's chest, surprised that the man could possibly still be alive.  
  
"Pockets," Davis gasped, and McKay went looking for the disks.  
  
He found them, put them in his own pockets, and began tearing strips from the fallen Aschen's uniform to pack in Davis' wound. A surprisingly strong hand closed around his wrist and pushed him away.  
  
"Go!" Davis was spitting blood now, and his voice had a horrible crack in it. "Survive."  
  
With one look behind him, McKay shook the dying man's hand, grabbed the zat and fled. The explosions lulled momentarily, and just before he reached the door, McKay heard in the silence the unmistakable rattle that always accompanies a human being's last breath.  
  
..................  
  
Griff, Jacob and Janet all reached the West point at the same time. Jacob began to reprimand the major, but a troop of Aschen came into view, stalling his tirade. Tossing Janet the detonator, Jacob turned to flank her, while Griff did the same thing on the other side. As Janet entered the last detonation sequence, a young man wearing the uniform of the Embassy support staff emerged from an office brandishing a gun. Janet was the only one in position to see him. He leveled his gun at the centre of Griff's back. Janet threw down the detonator and drew her own gun. As Jacob brought down the last of the Aschen guards and turned back towards her, Janet fired once, twice, three times, and the man fell, dead before he got anywhere close to the ground.  
  
Selmak cursed inwardly, and Jacob echoed the sentiment. The one thing they had hoped to prevent today was Janet herself killing anyone, and she had killed a human while their back was turned. They would cope later. Right now, they had to get her out.  
  
Ordering Griff to cover the rear, Jacob bodily pulled Janet to their predetermined escape route. She followed him woodenly, but she followed. And right now, that was all he needed.  
  
..................  
  
1300, Washington DC  
  
The whole raid had taken less than an hour. Jacob had taken half an hour to get himself and Janet to the rendezvous point, a warehouse in the old industrial section of the city, and they were still the first ones to arrive. Griff had arrived about fifteen minutes later, they had split up as soon as they cleared the Embassy, and the rest of SG-3 had dribbled in separately by 1230. There was no sign of Davis or McKay, and Janet had neither spoken nor moved from where Jacob had set her.  
  
Above in the catwalk, the lookout whistled. Someone was coming. A few seconds later, a second whistle followed. It was a friendly.  
  
Jacob met McKay at the door and half carried the wounded astrophysicist inside. Pausing briefly to order Griff to go out and make sure there wasn't a blood trail to give them away, Jacob was about to begin treating McKay when he felt Janet materialize beside him. No, Selmak told him, it wasn't Janet. It was Doctor Fraiser. And this was completely necessary.  
  
"Abernathy, I am going to need clean water and some material. Anything will do, just tear it into strips." The tone in Janet's voice was reassuringly familiar as she issued the orders. "Jacob, hold him still. I have to clean the wound and cut his shirt out of the way."  
  
There was a healing device in Jacob's pack, but the only thing that would make him get it was if McKay went into cardiac arrest.  
  
"The bullet went clear through, Rodney," Janet was saying as she tightened McKay's makeshift tourniquet. "It didn't get the bone. I am going to have to pull the dressing tight, but you'll use the arm again."  
  
Jacob stuck his belt between McKay's teeth to give the man something to bite down on. They were going to need medical supplies. Selmak added it to the list.  
  
"He's stable," said Janet. "He'll recover."  
  
"Davis?" asked Abernathy. McKay shook his head and sat up painfully.  
  
"We were attacked in the computer room. There were four of them. I – I killed. . ." McKay drifted off.  
  
Janet looked away from him. Here it comes, Selmak warned her host.  
  
In turning away from McKay, Janet was now facing the door, so when Griff came in to report that there was no blood trail, he was the only one who could see her face.  
  
"I killed," she said quietly, dully. "I killed."  
  
"You'll kill again, Doctor." Griff said. "You'll kill and you'll heal. You'll inspire the world to follow you and you will save us all."  
  
Janet let out one choked sob and swayed on her feet. Griff made no move to catch her, and she found her own footing.  
  
"You will save us all."  
  
..................  
  
AN: This chapter was so exciting to write! I am particularly proud of the tour guide part. It's all about the little actions and big heroes. Also, I'm sorry about Davis, but it couldn't all be sunshine and roses, now could it? What did you think? 


	6. Epilogue

**Epilogue**  
  
Janet Fraiser stood on the east face of Cheyenne Mountain and watched the sun rise. It surprised her, sometimes, that she could still find beauty in this world, but sunrises always made her feel better. They made her feel more like a doctor.  
  
Griff had been right. She had killed again. She had been ruthless. And each time she'd done it, another part of her had died. Standing here, on this mountain, knowing that the Aschen were gone and that a treaty between Human, Aschen and Asgard prevented their return, she knew that it had been worth it. But that didn't make her any less of a killer.  
  
"You're beginning to show, you know," Jacob said softly from behind her as she looked out at the rising sun. "You're not going to be able to conceal it much longer."  
  
"I know," she replied. In six months, she'd lived a lifetime and much of that time she had forgotten that her responsibility to this life would not end with the end of her war.  
  
"Who is the father?" Jacob had his suspicions, but asked anyway.  
  
"Daniel," came the soft, half expected answer.  
  
"You've worked a miracle, Janet," he told her. "You took a conquered planet and made it fight back."  
  
"It hasn't gone to my head, if that's what you're worried about."  
  
"That's not why I worry about you."  
  
She turned to face him, eyes full of tears. The birds sang out in their welcome of the dawn.  
  
"I'm so tired, Jacob. I'm so tired," her voice cracked. "I thought I could justify all the death, all the suffering, ours and theirs, but I just don't think that way."  
  
"I know. Military doctors always face this. Most don't have to deal with it though, because they never have to do what you did. Very few people will ever understand what their freedom cost you, but that doesn't make it worth less, and it doesn't lessen the gratitude they will give you." He held her gaze. "They will understand if you disappear."  
  
"Don't tempt me, Jacob. I can't. Not yet."  
  
"I know."  
  
They looked out at the sunrise and the planet that was theirs again.  
  
"What are you going to name it?"  
  
"I don't know," she placed a hand on her abdomen and gave a small, sad smile. "There are so many choices."  
  
..................  
  
**Finis**  
  
A Note On Janet Fraiser  
  
It took me a very long time to fall in love with Janet Fraiser. I think part of it is that I have never seen "Hathor" and most of it is that Star Trek has given me a very warped view of the way TV doctors should be. Still, here I found myself writing a story not only about Dr. Fraiser, but about what _makes_ her Dr. Fraiser.  
  
There were times in this story when I sort of wished that Dr. Fraiser was a man. I think that "her" breakdown would have been more effective that way. I really struggled with it, because I wanted to get it across that she didn't balk because she was a woman, she balked because she was a doctor. Then, I remembered that McKay had been shot, and I saw my way out. I'm pretty sure it worked.  
  
I am also inordinately proud of the Thursday speech. I muttered it to myself at work and then scrambled to write it down with a dying pen on a too small piece of paper. I didn't change a word of it, and I choke up every time I read over it. I really like the "oath" part.  
  
Janet and I had a good trip in this story. She broke my heart and made me cry, and she filled me with a sense of, well, _something_ positive. I hope you had as good a time as I did. 


End file.
